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observant. Secondly, that kind of masonry work doesn't occur in the areas with a high Arabic architectural and engineering influence. It's European, probably an Eastern Bloc country, somewhere wet."
    "Why is that?"
    "The line of water streaming down the cinder blocks behind the woman. It's either a very damp place, or there's been a lot of rain there lately. In both cases, that probably eliminates a lot of the dryer climates."
    Her lips parted into a thin smile. "Impressive."
    "Thank you. And I know."
    "That narrows it down to only a few million possibilities. And according to the man in the ski mask on the video, they're going to kill her in three days."
    Sean pushed on, in spite of her cynical response. "Check the weather across all of Europe to start. Look for anywhere that has been rainy for the last day or two. That should help narrow the search field a little. It’s not much but it’s a start. Last I checked it hasn't been a particularly wet beginning to summer."
    Emily nodded. "Makes sense. Anything’s better than nothing at this point."
    "Also, what was it that she was working on? It seems odd that a group of terrorists would put out a video, claiming what they would do to the hostage without asking for something in exchange. Doesn't that strike you as strange?"
    "It does," Emily agreed. "And they did ask for something. From what we know, Dr. Ott was working on something in the field of quantum gravity, something to do with big magnets and a bunch of physics stuff that I don't understand. What I was able to glean from the briefing is that her research could lead to extraordinary advancements in the fields of deep space exploration, cloaking, and any number of other things. It seems they’re interested in something she has or had in her possession. We’re not sure. They sent an encrypted message with the video, low level, nothing anyone else would see. They’re demanding we recover whatever it is she’s hiding. Problem is, we don’t know what she’s hiding or where it might be."
    It was Sean's turn to be confused. "Sounds like heavy stuff. You said one of the implications could be cloaking. As in, invisibility?"
    "Maybe. I would guess it has more to do with radar and sonar than anything else. A kind of stealth technology, if you will."
    Sean snorted. "Stealth has been around for a while."
    "Not like this. Her work would effectively make any object, small or large, impossible to detect with standard instrumentation. If terrorists were able to get their hands on something like that, it could mean big trouble."
    Sean considered the possibilities. A device of that kind would mean anyone could fly a plane right into any airspace they wanted. They could steer a ship right into the Hudson, park it next to Wall Street, and blow the whole thing up. He still had questions, though.
    "One, is that even possible? I'm no expert in physics, but I've dabbled in it. How would something like that work? And two, not to repeat this, but why in the world are the terrorists broadcasting that? If I were them, I'd keep a lid on this one as much as I could."
    "Maybe they're trying to make a statement. When was the last time a terrorist did something that actually made any sense?"
    "Good point."
    "But yes, they are acting differently than most known cells. As to the facts behind those weird, science fiction things I mentioned, our experts are suggesting that she was on the edge of a breakthrough that would change what we know about physics forever. It might have even brought about a unified field theory between classical physics and quantum mechanics."
    Sean's eyebrows rose involuntarily. "That's impressive."
    "Considering no one has been able to do that so far, not even some of the brightest minds in the world, yes, I would say that's an impressive accomplishment."
    The car went silent for a minute. Off to the right, the downtown area of Frankfurt passed by, a powerful reminder that German commerce and economic power still had a strong